~ politics for the people

Will Owen Smith meet Momentum, or is he happy to live in blissful ignorance?

It’s clear that Momentum’s offer for Owen Smith to meet the organisation and find out what he’s badmouthing is an implication that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

He has been quoted as saying, “If Momentum continue to carry on as a party within a party, then that’s something that everybody needs to look carefully at”.

Very interesting.

But would he ever have said that about Progress, or Labour First? And, if not, what does that say about his claim to be left-wing?

Momentum has asked Owen Smith to come to meet its members after the leadership challenger launched a stinging attack on the faction and suggested it could be banned from Labour.

The Corbynista group said Smith’s comments, made in a speech yesterday, were “completely inaccurate” and offered to clear up any “misconceptions”.

He brought to a head many of the concerns held over Momentum, which is not affiliated to the Labour Party. Centrist MPs say they have been subject to abuse and threats of de-selection from Momentum members but the group insists it behaves it campaigns ethically and is trying to deliver a Labour general election victory.

Today Momentum issued a statement in which it said members follow a code of ethics and that it exists “to help Labour be a more democratic, participatory and activist party, so that it can win elections to transform society in the interests of the many”.

You make Momentum sound like some kind of “power behind the throne” or something, Mike, when they aren’t. Momentum is an unofficial self-styled group of people fanatically pushing Corbyn and his agenda, seeking to foist it indiscriminately upon the Labour party and remove all obstacles to this end, including men and women of different mind. Momentum has no official status or power within Labour other than the sway its members can exert as individuals. No one has to have anything to do with these activists if they don’t want to and I applaud Owen Smith for cold shouldering these attention seeking people in the way he has.